Heretofore, a power supply device which includes an overheat protection circuit in order to remove a failure caused by overheat has been known. Temperature detection in this overheat protection circuit is performed by use of an expensive temperature-sensitive element dedicated for the temperature detection, such as a thermostat, a thermistor, a posistor. For example, an overheat protection circuit of a DC-DC converter includes the temperature-sensitive element such as the thermistor, and a control element such as a thyristor which operates in response to the temperature-sensitive element. When a temperature increase is detected by the temperature-sensitive element, a capacitor for a control power supply is discharged by the control element, and thus a supply of power to a control circuit is stopped, and an operation of the DC-DC converter is stopped.
Moreover, as such a power supply device including the overvoltage protection circuit, one in which a resistor is connected in parallel to a light-emitting diode forming a photocoupler has been known. For this resistor, one is selected, which flows a leakage current at a time when a zener diode is at a high temperature while detouring around the light-emitting diode, and has a resistance value capable of establishing a starting voltage of the light-emitting diode when a current from a voltage detection circuit reaches a set current value or more. Thus, a malfunction of the power supply device at the high temperature is prevented (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 6 (1994)-233528).
Incidentally, the thermostat, the thermistor, the posistor and the like, which are used as the temperature-sensitive element in the conventional overheat protection circuit, are expensive because production amounts thereof are small and temperature management therefor is finely performed, and the power supply device which uses these temperature-sensitive elements necessarily becomes expensive.